Li Yi

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Li Yi
李毅
Personal information
Date of birth June 20, 1979 (1979-06-20) (age 28)
Place of birth    Bangfu, Anhui province, Flag of the People's Republic of ChinaChina
Height 1.84 m
Playing position Defending-Striker
Club information
Current club Flag of the People's Republic of China Xian Chanba
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1997
1998
1999
2000-2006
2007-present
Tianjin Huochetou
Shenzhen Pingan
Beijing Guoan
Shenzhen Kingway
Xian Chanba


18 (4)   
National team2
2001-present Flag of the People's Republic of China China 29 (2)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 7 February 2007.
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of 7 February 2007.
* Appearances (Goals)

Li Yi (Simplified Chinese: 李毅) is a Chinese soccer player and coach. A striker on China national football team. He now plays for Xian Chanba.

His critical and pretentious off-field comments often overshadow his soccer skills. Comments such as saying his ball protecting is better than Thierry Henry, makes him a target for much criticism from home fans.

Contents

[edit] 2003 East Asian Cup Controversy

The 2003 EAC game opened in the face of heated political bitterness on both sides as Korea and China were bitterly embroiled over geographical claims over Goguryeo, which most historians consider as a Korean state if not by history then by culture though, China has persistently claimed that Goguryeo as a Chinese kingdom.

Also, two other factors added a great deal to apprehension between players during this match. The first was the enormous overseas expectation that China was no match for Korea and thus wouldn’t be able to put up a good fight out of fear of losing, a phenomenon coined in China as "Koreaphobia." This was because the Korea Republic National football team and the Chinese team had played 26 matches as of 2006 which resulted in 15 Korean wins and 11 draws. The 2003 East Asian Cup was thus heralded as a prime opportunity for China to end the losing streak against Korea.

As for Korea, the Korean team was embittered over the string of frequent rule violations during previous Korean games and how in 1998, a Chinese player had severely injured Korea’s star forward, Hwang Sun-Hong and thus preventing him from playing in the 1998 World Cup in France.[1][2]

Unsurprisingly, this game was played in a passionate manner on both sides. Tensions during the match peaked when South Korea closed the first half, leading by one point. In the second half of the game, Li Yi, playing forward, kicked Lee's right shin after Lee completed a pass. Recently recovering from ankle injury, Lee, upset at Li's violent play, slapped Li on the back of his head, after which Li Yi started rolling on the ground grabbing his head in apparent exaggeration. The field violence quickly simmered down as the referee awarded a yellow card for Li for exaggeration and red card for Lee for violence[3] though Yi's acting on the field was far from forgotten. Within weeks amused Internet surfers launched a flurry of photoshopped parodies of various TV and movie villains looming over Li Yi's writhing figure.

[edit] Other Matches

In ACL 2005, Yi scored two critical goals in-game and a the third goal in over time, for a 3-1 win against Al-Ahli (Jeddah) of Saudi Arabia.

[edit] References

[edit] External links